I swapped in another engine* to my '90 Legacy and it ran well for a day. I drove to work fine and then @ lunch, it cranks and cranks, and finally runs, but idles rough. It smells of fuel after it starts, too.

 

If I turn it off and restart it immediately it starts right up, but if it sits for a couple of hours it's back to the same issue of needing to crank excessively before it'll run.

 

NO CELs.

 

My initial guess is I have a fuel flooding issue, but where do I look? If it's one or more leaking injectors, is that an 'bad injector' or an issue w/the fuel rail, fuel pressure regulator (FPR), fuel filter, fuel pump or ???

 

Thanks!

TD

 

* The engine is an EJ22T (turbo) w/bigger injectors and turbo. I'm running a tuned ECU desiged for the injectors, and as stated, it ran fine when initially installed but just started 'acting stupid' yesterday.

Edited July 8, 201114 yr by wtdash

Check your connections? You probably have a connection that was marginal at first and it vibrated loose?

coolant temp sensor?

Thanks for the replies. CTS is new, but swapped it anyway - same issue.

 

Checked the resistance on the injectors and one is 25 ohms; other 3 are 13 ohms.....guessing that is the issue?

 

Thanks

If an injector is bleeding down, checking resistance will tell you nothing. Sniffing the plugs for fuel will tell you which cylinder is being flooded. A bottle of strong fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank can sometimes clean the varnish off of injectors and the insides of the rails and clear up issues like this.

If an injector is bleeding down, checking resistance will tell you nothing. Sniffing the plugs for fuel will tell you which cylinder is being flooded. A bottle of strong fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank can sometimes clean the varnish off of injectors and the insides of the rails and clear up issues like this.

 

Last time I had a bad injector I also had a CEL...so if the injector IS bad, not sure why it's not showing up in the codes.

 

In this case, the injectors were cleaned/tested about 2500 miles ago (but I bought 'em used), and installed w/new O-rings. I cleaned the rails w/in the last 10 miles - just before installing them....coincidentally I also had the Last set of injectors cleaned/tested shortly before they failed.....WTH??

 

I may swap in my other set of injectors/rails to verify....they were recently cleaned/tested, too....

 

Thanks

Edited July 3, 201114 yr by wtdash

The resistance of the one injector most likely isn't bad enough to cause a error code. It may need to be more like 10 times the normal resistance before the ECU would recognize a problem. I would recommend replacing it with another one that matches the others resistance readings.

 

Check the fuel pressure regulator to make sure it is working within specs and not over pressuring the fuel input. Check the plugs to see if they show signs of running too rich. The check valve in the fuel pump may be letting fuel back flow to the tank. See if the engine fires right up when you spray some starter fluid into the intake.

Swapped in another set of injectors and the car is running normal again, and starting OK.

 

The last time I had a bad injector I got a code so I thought I would've w/these, too. But as noted above...it wasn't bad enough to throw a code; just affect starting/running.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

td

Good deal. Thanks for the update.

Sorry to bump again, but I wanted to update this post for those that assisted in getting it fixed:

 

It was an O-ring - NOT a bad injector. I tested the injector today b4 taking it out of the fuel rail and it tested OK - WTH? - so I removed it and the bottom O-ring was torn??? I'm dropping it off w/the other set I just bought to be tested/cleaned to verify, but appears it was my poor install that caused the issue. I did not rush the install, and have installed many injectors before, but obviously was careless enough to screw one up.

 

What do people recommend to lube the O-rings to aid installing these dang things? I've heard vasoline and motor oil...is there something else??

 

Thanks

I use WD-40 to lubricate anything in the fuel or ignition system that's rubber - use it for removing and installing fuel lines, and for o-rings, etc. Works great and non-conductive!

 

GD

Any kind of petroleum base oil will work. Fuel system O rings are silicone which is impervious to petroleum.